Ghislaine Maxwell’s attorneys have formally petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn her 2021 sex trafficking conviction, claiming that her crimes were covered under a 2007 plea deal.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in the crimes of deceased convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, is claiming through her attorneys that the controversial deal — struck between Epstein and South Florida prosecutors — included her in addition to allowing the disgraced financier to plead guilty to state charges of solicitation and to procuring minors for the purpose of prostitution.
Her attorneys, husband-and-wife team David Oscar and Mona Markus, are citing one specific stipulation from the 2007 agreement that resulted in Epstein serving only 13 months in a work-release program — a line stating that the Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office would “not institute any criminal charges against any potential co-conspirators of Epstein.” The agreement named four such “potential co-conspirators,” but Maxwell was not one of them.
“Rather than grapple with the core principles of plea agreements, the government tries to distract by reciting a lurid and irrelevant account of Jeffrey Epstein’s misconduct,” Maxwell’s attorneys wrote. “But this case is about what the government promised, not what Epstein did.”
“This promise is unqualified. It is not geographically limited to the Southern District of Florida, it is not conditioned on the co-conspirators being known by the government at the time, it does not depend on what any particular government attorney may have had in his or her head about who might be a co-conspirator, and it contains no other caveat or exception,” they wrote. “This should be the end of the discussion.”
Maxwell has been in the headlines recently as she’s agreed to cooperate with the United States Justice Department in its continued efforts to get to the bottom of Epstein’s crimes. She recently spoke with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in an interview that stretched over two days, and according to reports, gave him the names of some 100 people who were connected to Epstein in some way.
President Donald Trump has said that he wants to publish as much information about Epstein as possible, but has been adamant that the victims should be protected. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said the same, stating that he would block a bipartisan push to release the files because the measure did not do enough on that front.
Trump also left the door open for pardoning Maxwell, saying recently that he at least was leaving the option on the table.
